Crankshaft games makes some noise with the latest offering of their Half-Life 2 mod, Eternal Silence. Learning from the mistakes of previous lag-ridden launches, the development team behind Eternal Silence beta 3.0 promise their most stable and feature complete release yet. Is this the mod space combat fans have been waiting for or will it be doomed to get lost in the void? Read on to find out what ModDB's first impressions are and whether or not Eternal Silence delivers the goods.
The Look
This mod has undergone a visual overhaul that has given it a more vibrant and saturated color palette. Leaving behind dark and dingy corridors of 2.3, beta 3.0 features ample lighting that showcases the excellence in texture work, modeling and environmental design within the maps. All of the ships retain their showroom shine thanks to some new shader implementation and the dazzling light show on display while engaging enemy bogeys out in space really is a sight to behold. All the old infantry weapons make their return but the damage they deal to the environment seems a little lackluster. In fact, the whole indoor, FPS portion could benefit from additional visual flourishes to heighten the intensity of battles within the capital ships (update: devs report to add this content in 3.1). Stuff like exploding consoles, falling debris and alarm systems to signify intruders and hull breaches would all increase the immersion factor. Overall, it really feels like the Crankshaft team has hit their stride in developing a unique, consistent visual style that is all their own.
The Sound
The audio in Eternal Silence sports original sound effects throughout. The space combat has also been given the special treatment in this area as well. Dogfights are reflected in the hectic soundscapes of missile lock-on alarms and automatically generated radio chatter. Add to that the low hum of giant laser beams narrowly missing you with the staccato pings of high caliber rounds penetrating your hull and you have an audio suite that compliments the space-faring action every step of the way. Unfortunately, the interior sections have taken a backseat here too. While the gunfire and weapons sound effects are adequate, there's little else to engage your ears other than the odd radio chatter.
Eternal Silence beta 3.0 trailer.
The Feel
Crankshaft developers claim to have created their most stable and balanced release yet with beta 3.0 thanks in large part to the hundreds of hours in play testing. This is clearly evident while playing, as the action is evenly distributed over both modes of the mod by introducing attack and defend phases. Teams have to destroy the opposing forces corvette ships before they are able to board an enemy capital ship. This forces even greater coordination between teammates and you really feel like part of a strike force as you escort friendly bombers to their destinations. Capital ships are constantly taking damage from weapons systems so this avoids any stalemates that can occur during the ebb and flow of battle, as sooner or later one of the ships will explode. The order in which capture points you secure also affects the tide of battle and adds another layer of of strategy. Go for the weapons point and you can stop your ships from taking extra damage or capture the shields point and you can disable the defenses to increase the damage taken by the enemy capital ship.
Stenchy's first steps in beta 3.0.
There are a few mods out there that set out to incorporate aspects of two separate genres but do so only with limited success. Eternal Silence beta 3.0 achieves a seamless transition between FPS and space simulation that has you spending less time dealing with overly complex controls and focusing more on just having fun. You'll be able to launch your own space offensive this Friday, June 6th, when Eternal Silence beta 3.0 releases. See you on the servers!
Want to hear more about Eternal Silence? Check out the second and sixth episodes of the Modcast for developer interviews concerning beta 3.0.
Cool, hope people will play it and stick around this time. I love the flying ship battles a lot. I wish this mod was just the flying ship, with group battles you setup with upgrades. I'll be there at release.... :P
are you from Ch?
It seemed like your the only one on your ship, and bad guys! :P looks great! Also, what do you use to record your ingame video?
Fraps or Wegame, but usually Fraps.
Xfire captures video now.
Excellent, looking forward to the release. I'll give it another try.
From the looks of it this mod will be able to deliver some pritty awsome yipikaye moments.Just hope there will be an active community that doesn't die after a few months.
Will We get a view to where we can see the instrument panels and controls in FPS view of the space ships/fighters? Other than that, this looks very promising.
wow looks amazing, where was my invite to the pre-release playtest haha?
This looks AMAZING!!!
Is it possible to play the mod with bots as I am not good at playing online games?
No, bots would be extremely complex for a mod such as this, and for a team our size it would simply be a lack of resources.
this mod looks awsome. only problem is i dont have ep2 games...
Incoming Missile.
Pretty sure you just need Half-Life 2 to play any mods built on any version of the Source engine.
You just need the Source SDK pack and you are ready to go.
you'll also need the SDK base files...
EDIT: you beat me to the punch :P
Nice video and good mod game.
Awsome, this will rock
Nice to see a mod evolve to it's final version and becoming a classic!
Old screenshots are ooollllddddd, both of those scenes are not currently in the mod, especially the HUD on the infantry one.
They haven't updated their gallery...
Yeah, we have a bunch on nice new screenshots on our site, dunno why Marc or Dan haven't uploaded them to ModDB yet...
For a game called Eternal Silence it's pretty loud.
Looks like it's really been polished a lot, but there are still some areas to work on. There is a lot missing in the sound department especially.
When Stenchy was in the hangar there was absolutely no sound whatsoever. No engine whirr, no claxons, it lacked atmosphere considering this is the first view you get once you spawn. Imo some spinning warning lights and sirens would really give the player a sense of urgency and tension. Contextual "The ship is under attack", and occasional impact screenshudder and muffled explosions on the ship hull would also add to the atmosphere a LOT.
But this is just an area to work on. It still looks like you die too easily as a soldier, but I'll have to give it a blast, because it's obvious the team has put a lot of effort into this latest version. Let's get some servers filled up!
Definitly. We will be adding more sounds.
But for your information, there are impact sounds when the ship gets hit. Also, reason why you don't hear the engine is because of the scalling we use space/infantry. I adjusted the sound DB to space, cause right now you cannot seperate them. If you would run em on infantry, the space part would be very loud. YOu would here ships from on the other side of the map. Our 1:40 scaling is causing the problem. We might be able to fix that, so you can actually hear the engines inside the hangars.
Also, we will be adding more sounds to the interrior, like enviroment sounds and atmosphere tracks. That I didn't have enough time for. It is not just making the sounds, you need to work together with the mappers. That just wasn't our priority. We needed to get the maps done and working. But this is up next!
Yeah I noticed afterwards when I listened to the Modcast that this is an area you're going to be looking at next. I think you did the right thing in just focusing on the raw maps and not getting distracted by the details at this stage.
very nice review stenchy - a very enjoyable read. I am now looking forward to playing eternal silence 3.0 even more than before :)
You know, I just wish there was more love for Aussies you know..
What do you mean?
servers :D
greatest and best mod in the world